Pipili rape: Odisha govt initiates action against doctors

Bhubaneswar: Acting upon the recommendation of National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC), Odisha government on Thursday initiated proceedings against three doctors for alleged dereliction of duty while treating the 19-year-old alleged rape victim of Pipili in Puri district.

"While two doctors were working at the government hospital in Pipili, one doctor belonged to the Capital Hospital here where the alleged rape victim was shifted in unconscious state," an official said.

Proceedings have been initiated under rule 15 (procedure for imposing major penalties) read with rule 17 of Orissa Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1962, he said.

The girl was allegedly raped on November 29, 2011 and the State Crime Branch of Police had arrested four accused persons for their alleged involvement in the matter.

Besides not subjecting the victim to medical examination though she was found nude in unconscious state, the three doctors were also accused of injecting anti-venum on the patient while there had been no symptom of snake bite.

"Govenment has been examining the recommendations of the NCSC in Pipili case. The government has already initiated action against the doctors," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters on his return from New Delhi.

NCSC chairman PL Punia in his recommendation sent to the Chief Minister noted that doctors did not send the victim for medical examination for rape on the day of the crime.

"It was all the more necessary in this case keeping in view the circumstances and facts of the case. The victim was found laying naked in paddy field unconscious. Normally, in all such cases the victim is sent for medical examination as a matter of routine," Punia said in his recommendation.

"It seems that the doctors deliberately tried not to create evidence against the influential accused and tried to destroy the evidence. The doctors failed to discharge their legal duties. The concerned doctors should be named as co-accused in this case and their medical degrees forfeited by Medical Council of India," the NCSC said in its report.

The State Commission for Women (SCW) had also found doctors responsible for the miseries of the dalit girl who had been admitted at the ICU of the SCB medical college hospital in Cuttack since January this year.

The girl was allegedly raped on November 29, 2011 and the State Crime Branch of Police had arrested four accused persons for their alleged involvement in the matter.

Local MLA Pradip Moharathy, who had been accused of harbouring the criminals, had resigned from the council of ministers in the wake of the allegation.